The effect of exclosures on restoration of soil properties in Ethiopian lowland conditions
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The effect of exclosures on restoration of soil properties in Ethiopian lowland conditions Kiros Abay1 · Sarah Tewolde‑Berhan2 · Kassa Teka3 Received: 28 April 2020 / Accepted: 17 September 2020 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract Land degradation is one of the environmental challenges in the semi-arid areas of Africa such as Ethiopia. To tackle this problem, exclosures have been established on degraded open grazing lands. However, there was paucity of research regarding their ecological merits, especially in the lowlands of Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. Hence, this study was conducted to explore the effect of conversion of grazing lands to an exclosure on soil chemical properties and soil organic carbon stock (SOC stock) in Tselemti district, which was taken as testing site to represent the lowlands of Tigray. A total of 36 plots (18 from grazing land and 18 from exclosure), measuring 20 m × 20 m, were established along 6 transects for soil sampling. From each plot, 1 composite soil sample for analyses of total nitrogen (TN), available phosphorus (avP), cation exchange capacity (CEC), electrical conductivity (EC), available potassium (avK), soil pH and soil organic carbon content (SOC) and 1 undisturbed soil sample for soil bulk density (BD) determination was collected from a depth of 0–30 cm. Hence, a total of 72 soil samples (36 for nutrients and 36 for bulk density analysis) were analyzed in the laboratory. Paired samples t test statistics at 5% level of significance using SPSS version 20 was used to compare the land uses. Pearson correlation test was also used to analyze the relationship among the different soil properties. The study showed that the conversion of open grazing land to an exclosure enhanced most of the soil properties except soil pH, avP and EC. The results revealed that the exclosure had significantly (p 1 sheep ha−1). Heavy grazing can negatively influence vegetation by destroying and/or disrupting the soil structure, enhancing organic matter oxidation, and resulting in the changes of soil properties storage than light grazing. Furthermore, as a result of their high livestock population, some farmers in the lowlands of Tigray, including the study area, are pessimistic towards exclosure and are complaining about the management system and its benefits. They are not sure that it is giving them more benefit than if it was used for livestock rearing, since they do not like to be deprived from environmental resources where it is a means of pursuing their livelihoods. Besides, according to Evans et al. [14], in drier and arid ecological regions, there might be trade-offs between managing lands for rehabilitation and animal production. The same is true in the lowlands of Tigray. In addition, accumulation of soil nutrients can vary between lowlands and highlands due to varying decomposition rates since it could affect the nutrients turnover and difference in plant productivity [15]. According to the authors, the effect of exclosure under different agro-ecologies varied Vol:.(1234567890)
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